The Economic and Social Review, Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring, 2009http://hdl.handle.net/2262/620312018-05-24T19:25:28Z2018-05-24T19:25:28ZSocial partnership, competitiveness and exit from fiscal crisisBarry, Frankhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/589952016-09-09T17:54:24Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZSocial partnership, competitiveness and exit from fiscal crisis
Barry, Frank
The contribution of social partnership to Ireland?s economic boom remains the subject of controversy. This paper analyses at a theoretical level how a multi-period deal on wages and taxation of the type struck in the late 1980s could enhance competitiveness and facilitate an economy in escaping from fiscal crisis. Such a deal would not be possible in a spot labour market. The high unemployment rates of the late 1980s suggest that the Irish labour market of the time cannot be characterised as a spot labour market, however, and such a deal could be struck under these circumstances. Short-term tax reductions would have worsened the short-term budgetary position and hence would have been politically unacceptable. An agreement entailing a commitment by government to future tax reductions in exchange for current wage moderation on the part of organised labour imparts a supply-side stimulus to the economy and improves the immediate fiscal position. The concluding comments provide a gloomy assessment of whether partnership could play an equivalent role in the current recessionary environment.
Paper delivered at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association,
Westport, Co. Mayo, 25-27 April, 2008
2009-01-01T00:00:00ZEvaluating opportunities when people are uncertainty averseGekker, RuvinPiggins, Ashleyhttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/589352016-09-09T17:54:26Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZEvaluating opportunities when people are uncertainty averse
Gekker, Ruvin; Piggins, Ashley
We consider the problem of ranking sets of alternatives. Standard approaches to this
problem regard the addition of an alternative to a set containing one element as enhancing choice. We argue that this monotonicity axiom may not be desirable when an agent is uncertain as to the value of this additional alternative. We replace monotonicity with an uncertainty aversion axiom, and also introduce an axiom that produces lexicographic behaviour. These axioms, in conjunction with an independence axiom, enable us to prove a characterisation theorem. This theorem says that sets are ranked in terms of the number of uncertain elements that they contain, the fewer the better. This is the only ranking rule that satisfies our axioms.
Paper delivered at the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association,
Westport, Co. Mayo, 25-27 April, 2008
2009-01-01T00:00:00ZNon-cash benefits and the distribution of economic welfareCallan, TimKeane, Clairehttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/589332016-09-09T17:54:25Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZNon-cash benefits and the distribution of economic welfare
Callan, Tim; Keane, Claire
Non-cash benefits can have substantial effects on the distribution of economic welfare. Standard approaches to the inclusion of non-cash benefits in broader measures of resources have failed to take adequate account of the pattern of needs associated with the greater use of health and education services. Our results, for Ireland in the year 2000, show that it is possible to derive more appropriate measures of total resources than have been derived using standard methods. The results indicate that the greatest impact comes from the inclusion of imputed rent for owner occupation as part of the resource measure. When this is done, the rate of ?resource poverty? for older people is substantially reduced, in line with results which use indicators of standard of living as well as cash incomes (?consistent poverty?).
Paper delivered at the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association,
Westport, Co. Mayo, 25-27 April, 2008
2009-01-01T00:00:00ZJob mobility in IrelandBergin, Adelehttp://hdl.handle.net/2262/589292016-09-09T18:18:51Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZJob mobility in Ireland
Bergin, Adele
This paper investigates the factors that determine job-to-job mobility in Ireland over the period 1995 to 2001. It finds that labour market experience, working in the public sector, whether a person is overskilled, the sector they work in and their occupation are important determinants of voluntary job change. The paper finds the rate of voluntary job mobility in Ireland trebled over the period 1995 to 2000. The sample is divided into two time periods and a decomposition technique is applied to ascertain how much of the increase in mobility is attributable to compositional changes and how much is due to other factors. Compositional changes explain around one-third of the increase, while the remainder seems to reflect fundamental changes in the operation of the labour market.
Paper delivered at the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association,
Westport, Co. Mayo, 25-27 April, 2008
2009-01-01T00:00:00Z